Friday 21 December 2012 19.05 EST
First published on Friday 21 December 2012 19.05 EST

It's a barren, tumbleweed-blown wasteland for game releases, although anyone with a smartphone or tablet will always be able to unearth plenty of fresh playthings. War Games: WOPR (iOS & Android, 69p) is a match-three game, set in the world of 80s Matthew Broderick movie War Games, where you play the role of Professor Falcon's global thermonuclear war simulator.

EMERGENCY (iOS, £2.49) has you controlling various sets of emergency services to attend and manage accident and disaster scenes, before saving as many casualties as you can.

Vampire Season – Monster Defence (iOS & Android, £1.49) pits you and an expanding range of monsters from popular fiction against waves of do-gooding vampire hunters.

Best of all, MicroMiners (iOS, £1.49) has you digging tunnels to guide groups of tiny colliers to the next seam of coal while avoiding pools of lava.